There will be no lost weekend for the Red Sox in Fenway Park. In Chicago a week ago, the Red Sox suffered four straight losses. Last night, as the Red Sox came home for a weekend, they whacked the White Sox, 13 to 6.
They saved their ammunition for one big inning exploding for 12 runs in the fifth. This was their largest rumble of the year but five shy of their own American League record of 17 for most runs in one inning.
During that 12-run 'round, the Red Sox shelled starter Ray Herbert, Gary Peters, Don Zanni, Eddie Fisher and Frank Baumann. Baumann, who halted a Red Sox rally last Friday night, finally brought the inning to a close when he fanned Jim Pagliaroni on a 3-2 serve.
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But Frank was flailed for consecutive doubles by Eddie Bressoud and Carl Yastrzemski before he extinguished the largest fire at Fenway Park since the press room on the roof was destroyed in March.
The Red Sox made eight hits in that fifth inning. That was one more than they fashioned in last Sunday's doubleheader in Chicago. The 13 runs was one more than they scored in the four-game series at Comiskey Park.
In that festive fifth, Russ Nixon equalled a record by making two hits as a pinch-hitter.
But of the many who have performed this stunt, nobody did it in the same fashion as Robust Russ. His first hit came with Carroll Hardy on first and one out. It was a squibbler down the third base line which he beat out. His second was a semi-speed roller which struck second base and zoomed out to center field for a two-run single. This was a perfect evening for shortstop Eddie Bressoud to make his first boot in a Red Sox uniform. Eddie made a bad peg on Nellie Fox' roller to short in the sixth.
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He had accepted 109 previous chances without a fluff prior to this error. It led to an unearned Chicago run but that didn't mean a thing.
Eddie was the leading Red Sox batter with three straight hits, two of them in the fifth.
The Red Sox eruption in the fifth was the biggest in the majors this season. The previous high was nine runs by the White Sox against Minnesota in a game Chicago won, 10 to 3.
The win went to Mike Fornieles, who relieved starter Don Schwall in the fourth and rubbed out five straight betters before giving way to Nixon, the perfect pinch-hitter.
A triple off the center-field fence by Al Smith in the second and a single by Nellie Fox produced the game's first run.
Chicago went into its 4-0 lead in the fourth. Mike Mershberger and Fox started this surge with singles and Camile Carreon lofted his first homer of the year into the nets in left-center.
Red Sox starter Don Schwall gave away to Mike Fornieles when Aparicio doubled doubled with one gone in the fourth. Fornieles put out this blaze.
Then came the major eruption by the Red Sox in the fifth that clinched the verdict.
Chet Nichols was charged with a run in the sixth when Eddie Bressoud made his first boot in a Red Sox suit. In the seventh, Jim Landis hit his seventh homer of the year for the first earned run against Nichols this Spring.
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